Arsenal Secures 16th Straight Champions League Group Stage Berth

Arsenal's Welsh midfielder Aaron Ramsey, left, celebrates with teammate French striker Yaya Sanogo after scoring his second goal during the Champions League second leg football match at the Emirates Stadium, London on Aug. 27, 2013. Photographer: Adrian Dennis/AFP/Getty Images

Aug. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Arsenal defeated Fenerbahce 2-0 to
reach the group stage of soccer’s Champions League for the 16th
consecutive season.

Aaron Ramsey scored both goals at the Emirates Stadium in
north London last night to give Arsenal a 5-0 win over the two-match playoff.

“We’re pleased with how we’ve done over the tie,” Ramsey,
who also scored in last week’s series opener, told ITV. “We’ve
not conceded a goal over the two games, which is always good.
We’ve got lots of quality in the team and we’re looking forward
to showing that in the group stages.”

The Gunners will be joined in the main draw of Europe’s
elite club competition by Austria Vienna, Schalke, Steaua
Bucharest and Basel. The final five places in the 32-team group
stage with be determined tonight. The 10 playoff winners join 22
automatic entrants in tomorrow’s group-stage draw in Monaco.

Austria Vienna progressed by a 4-3 total after a 3-2 home
loss to Dinamo Zagreb and Schalke, playing with 10 men, beat
PAOK 3-2 to complete a 4-3 win.

Steaua Bucharest advanced by scoring more away goals in its
series with Legia Warsaw after last night’s 2-2 draw in Poland
left the teams tied 3-3. Basel completed a 6-2 rout of
Ludogorets with a 2-0 home win.

Arsenal remains perfect in 12 Champions League playoff
matches, having won all six of its series by a 29-3 combined
score.

Ramsey’s Double

Arsenal took a 3-0 lead from the first game in Turkey into
last night’s match and Ramsey added to it in the 25th minute.
Theo Walcott was tackled in the area and the ball fell to the
Welshman, who fired a shot into the open net.

Ramsey struck again with 18 minutes remaining as he took a
pass from Kieran Gibbs and sent his shot into the top corner
beyond the reach of goalkeeper Volkan Demirel.

Roman Kienast’s goal in the 82nd minute gave Austria Vienna
the series win over Dinamo Zagreb.

Vienna took a 3-0 aggregate lead at home on Florian Mader’s
fifth-minute score. Dinamo then got goals from Marcelo Brozovic,
Junior Fernandes and Fatos Beciraj to go in front on the away-goals rule before Kienast struck with eight minutes left.

Goals from Nicolae Stanciu and Federico Piovaccari were
enough to earn Steaua Bucharest the draw at Legia Warsaw and a
spot in the group stage on away goals. Miroslav Radovic and
Jakub Rzezniczak scored for Legia.

Adam Szalai’s second goal of the game in the final minute
at PAOK clinched Schalke’s place in the group stage. Julian
Draxler also scored for Schalke, which played the final 26
minutes with 10 men after Jermaine Jones received his second
yellow card. Stefanos Athanasiadis and Kostas Katsouranis scored
for PAOK.

Swiss champion Basel easily advanced with the home win over
Ludogorets on goals from Fabian Frei and Philipp Degen.